Identification Terms HIST-234

Created on 9/10/25, For Instructor: Julia B. Haager @ WCU

The Columbian Exchange

Involved Europeans, Indigenous Americans, and Africans in a massive transfer of crops, animals, diseases, people, and ideas starting in 1492 between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It reshaped global demographics, economies, and ecosystems, and laid the foundation for colonialism, slavery, and cultural transformation.

Walking Purchase of 1737

Was a fraudulent land deal by the Penn family that displaced the Lenape tribe in Pennsylvania. It happened because colonists wanted to expand territory and used deception to claim land.

Separatist vs. Non-Separatist Puritans

Wanted to leave the Church of England, while the other aimed to reform it from within during the early 1600s in England and New England. This division arose from religious persecution and the desire for religious purity.

Indentured Servitude

Was a labor system where poor Europeans and some Africans worked under contract for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies, especially in the 1600s

The Enclosure Movement

This is in England from the 16th to 19th centuries involved landowners privatizing common lands, displacing rural peasants. It aimed to increase agricultural efficiency and led to urbanization and emigration.

Vagrancy Laws

Criminalized homelessness and unemployment, targeting displaced people in England, the U.S. South, and the Caribbean across various periods. These laws were used to control labor and suppress mobility.

Headright System

Granted land to settlers in early 1600s Virginia and other colonies to encourage immigration. It was implemented by colonial governments to attract settlers and laborers.

Raiding Parties

Were armed groups involving colonists, Native Americans, and African slave traders capturing people for slavery or territory from the 1600s to 1800s. They operated in the Americas and Africa to acquire labor and resources.

Tight Packing

Was a slave ship method used by traders to maximize profits by cramming enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage from the 16th to 19th centuries. It prioritized economic efficiency despite high mortality rates.

3/5ths Compromise

Was a 1787 agreement at the U.S. Constitutional Convention to count enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation. It was designed to balance political power between slave and free states.

Fugitive Slave Laws

Passed in 1793 and 1850 required the return of escaped slaves in the U.S., involving Congress, enslaved people, and abolitionists. These laws aimed to protect slaveholders’ rights and suppress abolitionism.

First vs. Second Middle Passage

The First was the brutal transatlantic journey of enslaved Africans to the Americas, while the Second was their forced relocation within the U.S. from the Upper South to the Deep South in the 19th century. Both were driven by the expansion of slavery and the cotton economy, and involved immense suffering and displacement.

Blackbirding

The coercive recruitment of Pacific Islanders for labor in the 19th century, involving recruiters and plantations in Australia and Peru. It supplied cheap labor under exploitative conditions.

Chain Migration

A pattern where one immigrant moves and others follow, involving families and communities globally, especially post-1965. It occurs due to family reunification and support networks.

King Cotton

Symbolized the dominance of cotton in the Southern U.S. economy during the 19th century, involving planters and enslaved laborers. It drove slavery, trade, and political power.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Authorized the forced relocation of Native American tribes by the U.S. government from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. It aimed to open land for white settlement.

The Task System

Slavery labor method in the 18th–19th century where enslaved people in South Carolina and Georgia completed daily tasks. It allowed limited autonomy after work was done.

Creolization

Cultural blending of African, European, and Indigenous traditions among enslaved Africans and colonists from the colonial period onward. It occurred in the Caribbean and American South due to forced migration.

Maroon Communities

Settlements of escaped enslaved people resisting slavery from the 1600s to 1800s in the Caribbean, South America, and U.S. South. They preserved freedom and opposed oppression.

Movement and Place (Berlin)

Historian Ira Berlin’s framework for understanding how slavery evolved across time and geography in the U.S., emphasizing how enslaved people’s experiences varied by region and era. Developed in the late 20th century, it helps scholars analyze slavery as a dynamic institution shaped by migration, labor systems, and cultural adaptation.

Revolt aboard the Creole, 1841

The 1841 Revolt aboard a boat involved enslaved people gaining freedom in the Bahamas during a slave transport. It was a significant act of resistance with international legal implications.

Sharecropping and Crop Liens

This emerged in the post-Civil War South, involving freedmen and poor white farmers working land for a share of the crop while often borrowing against future harvests. These systems replaced slavery but trapped workers in cycles of debt and dependency, reinforcing racial and economic hierarchies.